Hood for divers&#39; suits



A. BELLONI March 4, 1952 HOOD FOR DIVERS SUITS Filed Feb. 27, 1948 ANGELO BELLONI Patented Mar. 4, 1952 HOOD FOR DIVERS SUITS Angelo Belloni, Venice, Italy, assignor to Pirelli Societa Per Azioni, Milan, Italy Application February 27, 1948, Serial No. 11,597

' In Italy October 14, 1941 Section 1-, Public Law 690, August s, 1946 Patent expires October 14, 1961 "1 Claims. (o1. 128-141) This invention pertains to masks for underwater divers and more particularly has reference to such masks adapted for use with light waterproof fabric diving suits designed for shallow water diving.

Heretofore masks of this character have generally been applied only over the face of the diver and were usually entirely'separate from the divers suit. While such masks exclude water from the divers face and, when connected to a. compressedair supply line, permit satisfactory breathing when submerged, they do not protect the rest of the divers head and cars from direct contact with the water, with the result that divers frequently suffer from exposure of the head to cold water, inflammation of the inner ear and injury to the ear drum from the pressure of the water thereon.

Another disadvantage of such prior art diving masks is that they afford no means whereby the divers suit may be inflated with compressed air from the air supply line and the divers body is therefore subjected to the full hydrostatic pressure of the surrounding wate An object of this invention is to overcome these defects in prior artdiving masks by providing a mask which will fully protect the divers head and cars from direct contact with water.

Another object of this invention is to provide a diving mask which will afford means for supplying the divers suit with compressed air from the supply line attached to the mask.

With these and other objects in view which may be incident to my improvements, my invention consists in thecombination and arrangement of elements thereinafter described and illustrated in the accompanying drawing in which:

Fig. 1 shows a side elevational view of my improved mask,

Fig. 2 shows a front elevational view of the same, and

Figure 3 shows a fragmentary section through a portion of the mask where the face-piece is joinedtothe hood.

In the drawing, the reference numeral I denotes the face-piece of the mask which is made of relatively stiff molded rubber and to which is attached with water-tight joints an air inlet connection fitting 2, a plurality of transparent eye-pieces 3, and buckles 4 on the attachment of head straps. Fitting 2 carries inwardly of the face-piece an air tube, the free end of which is held in the drivers mouth, and the exterior of the fitting is adapted for the attachment of a Compressed air supply line. These elements of the face-piece are of conventional design and do not enter into the novelty of my invention.

.Around its entire rear periphery, face-piece I is attached by molded joint to an elastic hood, 5

which comprises a head cap 6, with a front headpiece 1 and a neck-piece 8. The neck-piece 8 and front head-piece 1 are made of one piece of thin, highly elastic rubber which is molded to theface-piece I by an integral inner fold 9, as shown in Figure 3, and to the head cap 6 by a conventional overlapping seam. The head cap 6 is made of rubberized fabric in a shape to conform gener-, ally to the contour of the top and back of the head. The elasticity of the neck-pieced is such that it can be stretched sufficiently to pass over the head when donning the mask and cling tightly around the neck and over the upper edge [0 of the divers suit, so as to form a water-tight connection therewith when in wearing position, as shown in Figure 1.

In donning the mask, underfold 9 on front headpiece I is unfolded which permits entrance of the head into the head cap 6 after passing through the neck-piece B. After donning the mask, the face piece I and the hood 5 are held in adjusted position on the head by a plurality of head straps II which are permanently attached to a crownpiece l2 and adjustably engage the buckles 4 on the face-piece l, as clearly shown in Figure 1. Before drawing up the straps I I to hold the mask and hood in adjusted position, the inner fold 9 of the front head-piece T is tucked in under the edge of the face-piece I, as indicated in Figure 3, and is held in this position by the pressure of the head straps.

Instead of mounting the air exhaust valves in the face-piece as is generally the case in prior art divers masks, I mount these valves, denoted by the reference numeral I3, on either side of the neck-piece 8, so as to extend downwardly and outwardly at angles of approximately 45, as shown in Figures 1 and 2. These valves are of the conventional rubber check valve type and their only novelty in my invention is in their location and the fact that they are calibrated to ing through the joint between the neck-piece 8 and suit 10, but serves also to inflate the hood and suit and thus interpose a cushion of air between the surface of the divers head and body and the inside of the hood and suit. This air cushion serves to prevent the hood and suit from chafing the skin of the diver and also to reduce the heat loss from the divers body into the surrounding colder water. The hood also protects the divers cars from the entrance of water therein.

In order to insure that air does not escape through the joint between the neck-piece 8 and the suit I0, the elastic pressure of the neck-piece is made such as to maintain a difierential pressure 01. from 70-80 mm. of water.

The operation of my improved diving mask is as follows. With the mask, hood and suit adjusted in position shown in Figures 1 and 2, and a compressed air line attached to the fitting 2 of the face-piece I, the diver slowly submerges. As his depth increases he permits some of the compressed air he is breathing to escape from his mouth-piece into the face-piece. This air passes into the hood and suit and at once neutralizes the external pressure of the water, not only around the divers head and ears, but also around his body. The tension 'of the head-straps l| is sufiicient to prevent over-inflation of the hood 5 and consequent-excess stress on the thin, elastic neck-piece 8 and the front head-piece 'I. The excess pressure is also regulated by the exhaust valves l3 which automatically open when the air pressure differential exceeds 30-40 mm. of water.

When the divers depth of submersion is decreasing, the differential air pressure in the mask and hood is automatically prevented from increasing by the discharge of air through-the exhaust valves l3,which however always maintain a differential pressure of from 30- mm. of water at the level of these valves, while the pressure differential in the hood is always slightly higher by reasonof the difference in hydrostatic pressure between the level of the valves l3 and the top of hood 5; v

If any water should occasionally seep into the mask, it will collect by gravity in the lower part of the face-piece I and the cap 6, from which it can be readily discharged into the neck-piece 8 and blown out through the exhaust valves [3 by the diver holding his head up, raising by hand one of the lower head straps II, and permitting some compressed air from his mouth piece to escape into themask and cap and thus expel the water collected in the neck-piece 8. This is an additional advantage in the novel location of my exhaust valves in the neck-piece instead of the face-piece of the mask.

While I have shown and described the preferred embodiment of 'my invention, I desire it to be understood that I do not limit myself to the constructional details disclosed by way of illustration, as these may be changed and modified by those skilled in the arts without departing from the spirit of my invention or exceeding the scop o the appended claims.

I claim:

1. A divers mask comprising a unitary facepiece and hood which covers the entire head and neck of the diver and maintains an elastic, watertight seal around the neck, means to receive compressed air from a supply line connected to the face-piece and means to maintain such air within the mask at a higher, substantially constant, differential pressure with respect to the hydrostatic pressure on the outside of the mask, and one or more air exhaust valves which are adapted to open at said differential pressure.

2. A divers mask according to claim 1, wherein the exhaust valves are located near the lower edge of the hood.

3. A divers mask according to claim 1, in which the exhaust valves are directly downwardly and outwardly at angles of approximately 45 with respect to the hood.

4. A divers mask comprising a rubber facepiece and elastic hood which covers the entire head and neck of the diver and maintains an elastic, water-tight seal around the neck, said face-piece being adapted to receive compressed air from a supply line connected thereto and said hood being provided with air escape valves adapted to maintain air within the mask at a higher, substantially constant, differential pressure with respect to the hydrostatic pressure-on the outside of the mask. v

5. A divers mask comprising a rubber facepiece and elastic hood which covers the entire head and neck of the diver and maintains an elastic, water-tight seal around the neck, said hood being permanently attachedto the facepiece by an elastic inner fold between the hood and face-piece. T

6. A divers mask comprising a, rubber facepiece, an elastic hood which covers the entire head and neck of the diver and maintains an elastic, water-tight seal around the neck, and a flexible head cap adapted to fit snugly over and protect said hood from external damage and also limit the inflation of said hood when subjected to internal air pressure. a a 7 A divers mask comprising a unitary rubber face-piece, a hood which covers the entireihead and neck of the diver, said hood including an elastic neck portion which is adapted to maintain a water-eight seal with the upper edge of an inflatable diving suit worn by the diver, and a crown-piece having a plurality of straps adapted to engage buckles attached to the face-piece and The following references are of record in file of this patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS Date the Number Name V 835,950 Iwanami Nov. 13, 1906 2,005,072 liooharin June 18, 19 35 

